The first nine weeks of this year provide us with several
opportunities to bring PR and IRV to the attention of many different audiences
throughout the State as well as a critical implementation in San Francisco with
Proposition A – The IRV initiative. Success in San Francisco would put
reforming the voting system, as distinct from other types of election reforms,
on the national political agenda. CPR has already donated $1,000.You can make your own personal contribution
with a tax-deductible check mailed to: FairVote SF,PO Box 22411, San Francisco, CA 94122 (donations of $100 or more
must provide home address, occupation and employer).Precinct walking and other campaign activities are occurring
every Saturday and Sunday from 1910 Mission St @15th (16th St BART stop) from
10am - 1 pm.To get involved with the
campaign, please contact Caleb Kleppner, 415-824-2735 or calebk (at) fairvote.org or
visithttp://www.improvetherunoff.org/

The Democrats and Republicans are holding their respective
state conventions in February; the Republicans in San Jose on Feb 8-10 and the
Democrats in Los Angeles on Feb 22-24. We will be tabling at both events. If
you or anyone in your chapter can help out, please contact the appropriate
Chapter Coordinator (see page 3)

Nat Lerner – Editor.

What’s Inside? Page two-
Refocusing Our Movement

Pagethree- News from San
Diego, El Dorado County and East Bay plus LocalContacts

The campaign is really rolling along, with recent
endorsements from the San Francisco Labor Council and City Democratic
Club. It's time to pick up where we left off in December -- delivering
our message to every door step in San Francisco that there is a better way than
low-turnout, expensive and voter-UNfriendly December runoffs. That way is
Proposition A – Instant Runoff Voting, or as some have taken to calling it,
SAME-DAY runoff voting.
Two recent studies have documented that December runoffs disproportionately
hurt districts and precincts with higher numbers of minority voters and progressive/liberal
voters, who turn out in lower numbers than conservative districts and
precincts. Instant runoff voting will level the playing field
and do away with the kind of manipulation that goes on around December runoffs.
In November and December we delivered 35,000 doorhangers to San Francisco
homes. We need to re-double our efforts, we really need your help and
support, now more than ever. We will go forth with the message of Prop
A: "One election, not two. Improve the Runoff. Increase voter turnout,
decrease mudslinging campaigns, and save $2 million per election that can be
used for other city services."
Please join us! All best, Steven Hill Proposition A campaign manager.

In the past
year, California's election reformers saw an exciting amount of progress,
mostly involving single-winner elections and equipment upgrades. This includes
the creation of theequipment funding
ballot measure, an instant runoff voting bill in the state assembly, the San
Francisco instant runoff ballot measure, creation of the IRV Coalition, and an
increase in awareness of election reform issues by leaders and activists
throughout the state. Prospects for further advancement look good in 2002
and the years to come.It is crucial
that we be prepared for this growth by working together in a dynamic, cohesive
organization and by building a strong reputation.

The Board
formed a committee several months ago to consider new ways to do this. After
discussion with many active CPR members, this committee plans to bring several
proposals to the Annual General Meeting in May. The first recommendation is that
California's election reform movement be organized around a single set of central
principles, as opposed to several clusters of activity or interest revolving
around a specific solution to a problem. To achieve this, and to allow
our organization to maintain a leading role, the committee will propose a
change to the statement of purpose in our bylaws.

The current
statement reads: The primary objectives and purposes of this corporation
shall be to promote and work for the implementation of proportional
representation and other electoral reforms.

An alternative:The purpose of this corporation is to promote the use of election methods in
California that pursue the following democratic principles:

*All voters deserve an equal voice.

* Each voter deserves to have
that voice expressed by a representative s/he supports.
* All voters deserve a diverse array of realistic choices.
* Group decisions should reflect a mandate of a majority of voters. In addition to more clearly
stating our case, this change would allow single-winner and PR activists to
work together under the same roof.This revision would adjust our
focus, but not mandate major structural change. It would not force PR
supporters to work on IRV or vice versa, and it would not inhibit the work of
activists of either type on their respective reforms. Instead, it would
allow us to share resources to the extent that we have common interests. The second recommendation is
that the organization change its name to reflect this new focus. We
established several criteria for the group's name. It should:
1. Describe our objectives
2. Be short and catchy
3. Appeal to all Californians (and not just activists)
The Board is currently considering four names:
* FairVote - this name has some momentum because both we and the Center for
Voting and Democracy use it in our web addresses, groups in Minnesota and
Canada use it, and CVD has been using it for various political efforts.
For our purposes, there is concern that does not satisfy the third criterion
above - that it emphasizes a redistribution of power among voters that could,
upon first glance, alienate conservatives and less
committed folks upon whose support we depend. It also falls short on the
first criterion. In cases such as the San Francisco ballot measure, our
selling points are efficiency, convenience, and higher turnout, not
fairness. We would need to append "California" to the end to
distinguish
ourselves from the other groups.
* Voter Voice - This name captures our principles in a more general and neutral
way. It emphasizes empowerment of all voters, rather than some at the
expense of others. We have a nice logo for this at http://www.directrep.org/VoterVoice.jpg
We could append "California" if we want.
* Californians for Electoral Reform - this is a more straightforward name that
would be a good compromise if the above two stir up too many
passions.
* Center for Voting and Democracy of California - with this name, we could tie
in to the national group, assuming that it wants to associate in this
way with local activists.If we adopt a new name, it's likely
that the existing names, "Californians for PR" and "California
IRV Coalition", would be used as a list of endorsers of these specific
reforms that may include individuals or groups who are not members of our
organization. We encourage input from the membership
on these recommendations and look forward to discussing them with you at or
before the May meeting. If you have comments or alternative proposals,
please send them to me (dbr (at)
directrep.org).

A note regarding last issue's letters sectionWe value the role of The Voice for
Democracy as an open forum for our membership. However, after receiving
feedback from members regarding the letter from a member in the previous issue
and my response to it, we have decided to adopt a new policy that, while
letters representing all
points of view are welcome, letters that do not maintain a level of personal
respect toward our membership may be subject to editing or may
not be published, at the editor's discretion. We apologize to readers who
may have been offended by this exchange.

Thanks
Steve Chessin.

El
Dorado County News – from Paula Lee

El Dorado
County IRV supporters continue to pursue an IRV charter amendment.
The Board of Supervisors sent the IRV proposal to the County Counsel's office
to review for legality and
it is still sitting there. In the meantime the local
League of Women Voters have produced a tri-fold
brochure on IRV that encourages folks to call the Board of Supervisors and
request that IRV be put on the ballot.The League is offering speakers on
IRV to groups and people who want to have "house parties" to learn
about IRV.

East
Bay Chapter news
The Berkeley City Clerk's Feasibility Study on IRV has been delayed; the City
Council does still have time to put it on the Fall 2002 ballot. We'll watch the
SF IRV campaign closely this Spring.
We have been told but have not confirmed that IRV (or "preference
voting") is included in the language on an Oakland measure coming up in
the Spring 2002 election regarding filling mayoral vacancies by election. Last
year Oakland approved a similar measure for City Council vacancies - the
language included using IRV among other turnout-increasing strategies.We supported the KPFA Local Advisory Board's
second election of Listener Representatives. The election uses modified STV
(Choice Vote) to elect 7 seats (out of 18 candidates this year). A total of
4,332 votes were cast from 29,578 mailed ballots (15% return); Both mail-in and
Internet voting was used again. More information is available at www.kpfalab.orgJim Lindsay and David Greene will present a
review of IRV and PR to the Albany-Berkeley-Emeryville chapter of the League of
Women Voters on Thursday Feb. 14.The
next chapter meeting will be Tuesday Feb. 19, 7pm, at 1614 Sixth St. in Berkeley.
Call 510-526-5852.

News
from San Diego

Ed Teyssier and
others are working to have support forIRV and PR included into the Libertarian Party Platform in mid-February.
He is also going to seek State Convention delegate endorsement of San Francisco’s
Proposition A – the IRV initiative. Good luck Ed!

Local Chapters and Contacts

San Diego CountyEdward Teyssier 858-546-1774

edward (at) k-online.com

Southern CaliforniaCasey Peters (213)-385-2786 cp (at) pcmagic.net

Monterey CountyNat Lerner (831)-442-1238 natscottl (at) yahoo.com

South Bay Jim Stauffer (408)-432-9148jstauffer (at) igc.org

San Francisco Betty Traynor (415)-558-8133

btraynor (at) energy-net.org

East Bay David Greene
(510)-658-3085 dmgreene (at) igc.org

Sacramento CountyPete Martineau (916)-967-0300 petemrtno (at) aol.com

El Dorado CountyPaula Lee (530)-644-8760 paulalee (at) softcom.net

North BayWayne Shepard (707)-5520-5317 pauldebits (at) juno.com

Co-Vice-Presidents of
Local Chapters are Jim Stauffer (408)-432-9148 /email at jstauffer (at) igc.org

Voice for Democracy is published by Californians for Proportional
Representation (prior to May 2000 Northern California Citizens for Proportional
Representation). Our web site at http://fairvoteca.org may have more current information. Please submit
articles or letters for publication to: c/o David Robinson, Voice for
Democracy, 52B
Escondido Village, Stanford CA 94305 or
e-mail to
dbr (at) stanford.edu

************************************************

South
Bay News

The South Bay Chapter is preparing literature and signing
up volunteers for tabling at the Republican state party convention, which will
be in San Jose on Feb. 8 - 10. Anyone interested in helping out can call the
Chapter Coordinator.Our Chapter will
also be hosting the CPR Annual General Meeting and retreat on May 18 - 19.
Another project looking for volunteers to get it going is the preparation of a
candidates survey. This survey would be aimed at politicians to gauge their
knowledge of and receptiveness towards local implementation of IRV and PR. Jim
Stauffer, (408) 432-9148 jstauffer (at) igc.org

Support
Proposition 41

The Jan 26 meeting of the CPR Board endorsed Proposition
41. The exact wording of the measure is “Should the state borrow $200
millionthrough the sale of general
obligation bonds to assist counties in the purchase of updated voting systems?”
It will allow voting machines to be upgraded to be choice-voting friendly
as well. Please lobby newspapers, talk shows and friends to support this
measure.

Resolution on Afghanistan

The
following resolution was passed at the January 26, 2002 Board meeting of the
Californians for Proportional Representation. “Californians for
Proportional Representation urges the US Department of State, the United
Nations and those other organizations and individuals that may be advising the
Afghanistan interim government on selecting a Constitutional Assembly or
initiating democratic elections to consider the many advantages of Proportional
Representation voting systems.
Proportional Representation (PR) systems provide the fairest representation in
populations made up of disparate groups, as is the situation in Afghanistan. PR
systems are also known to increase the level of cooperation in legislatures
where there is no dominant majority party. Given the history of PR, such as
most Eastern Bloc countries adopting PR systems after the breakup of the Soviet
Union and that various forms of PR are used by most democratic governments around
the world, we encourage all forms of PR to be seriously considered.”It is being sent to:- Koffi Annan, Secretary General of The United
Nations, Colin Powell, Secretary of State, the US Department of State, John
Ashcroft, Attorney-General, US Department of Justice,Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, California’s Senators,
Associated Press and Reuters.